Hiding the House in the Apocalypse

20. injection

Is there anyone in this world who likes zombies?

there is.

They are scientists.

This is because monsters cannot be captured alive in any way and do not leave corpses behind, making analysis and research that humans boast impossible, while zombies leave corpses behind.

At the present point in time when the world has collapsed by half, no one takes issue with sawing or shooting zombies, but surprisingly, in the early days of destruction, there were people who were concerned about zombies’ human rights.

It’s a consequential story, but I think they did it because they were worried about their future as zombies rather than worried about zombies themselves.

Among the research papers on how mutation factors affect the brains of dead humans, the most cited experimental subject of Professor J. Catterer’s material was from such a zombie human rights activist.

In my case, zombies are

jump!

it’s something disgusting

Especially when I meet him when I’m tired like now, I really want to close my eyes like my colleagues who left before me.

“Kurrr!!”

jump!

But the reason I fiercely wield an axe and shake them off is not because I’m afraid of dying, but because I have a lot to lose.

my air defense shelter. I would rather see the end of the world than see someone else sitting in my own sanctuary where my blood and sweat were poured.

With this mindset, I pushed through the zombies and arrived at the safe zone.

“······after.”

I sighed and checked my wounds.

There is a saying that if you get bitten by a zombie, you become a zombie.

The factor of mutation, the cause of zombies, only affects the brains of dead humans.

The prevailing view in the academic world is that it must penetrate into the brain of a human capable of advanced mental functions to die like a monster invading the earth.

A minority opinion cites as a counterexample that zombies often appear even in places where there are no necromancer types, but that is not a disease that makes you a zombie, but a mutation factor buried somewhere in the body, and when you die, the factor mutates the dead brain and turns it into a zombie.

Still, there is a way.

As a result of groping and moving from head to toe, there was not a single scratch.

The gym bike, my mode of transportation, is also in good health.

The presents from the Defender siblings are also safe.

I popped a piece of chocolate into my mouth to replenish calories and energy.

“······ha.”

They say it’s hard when you leave the house.

Still, in hindsight, I thought it might be better for my mental health than staying in a corner of the house.

But that was my thoughts before I checked the community.

So, it was a naive thought before I knew the atrocities the Defender siblings had committed on the bulletin board.

Unaware of the miserable future to come, I felt the sugar from the chocolate happily spread through my exhausted mind and body, gazing at the mountains and topography towering in the twilight, I gauged the scenery around me.

The location was roughly figured out.

It is a place that I have seen and remembered several times.

But something unexpected happened.

A light came on in an abandoned apartment.

This is where the woman who fed the cat lived alone.

No one will be living there after she exploded.

Are there new residents?

That apartment is about 6 km in a straight line, which is not too far from my territory.

However, it is a place where low mountains and streams block in the middle, and the road is connected to a winding branch line rather than a main road.

It doesn’t have any particular strategic value, but the fact that people came into my area stimulated my interest.

*

When asked what people do, most people will choose to eat, but in my case, it is curiosity.

I don’t have a lazy personality, but when I’m curious and when I’m not, I think I’m a completely different person.

The most notable difference is the ability to act.

The fact that I went straight to the abandoned apartment without returning home was largely due to my personality that could not be cured even with medicine.

＜The 218th Pioneer Corps under the 22nd Pioneer Corps＞

At the entrance of the apartment, a flag announcing their affiliation was fluttering.

Pioneers, as expected.

I checked the amount of ammunition remaining.

Pistol ammo is plentiful, but rifle ammo is not.

The physical condition is also not in the best condition.

Fatigue from long-term movement and battle did not recover.

That means the possibility that my body may not move according to my will at a critical moment.

I, who usually avoid battles, spoke of battles because of my antipathy towards the group called pioneers.

The gang in red pants might be very vicious, but the gang of Choi Jung-ryeong, whom I experienced in the past, told me their true nature.

A legal predator recognized by the state.

Perhaps that legitimacy has endowed them with unreasonable deterrence and cruelty.

It’s a place that has little to do with my territory, but it’s a concern that there are pioneers nearby.

I approached the apartment with the intention of doing at least a light reconnaissance.

“!”

There is something.

in the dark

Did your senses become dull due to fatigue?

I couldn’t even hear the breath.

I blamed myself and stared into the darkness.

A person, something like it, sat motionless.

If you look closely, it’s an old man.

An old woman of eighty, not seventy, was sitting on a cold rock, looking like an old industrial product, staring at me.

“grandma?”

The old woman said nothing and seemed unwilling to do anything.

When I call her, she just smacks her lips, revealing her toothless mouth, and continues to send me nonsensical glances.

A sudden shout erupted from above.

“Hey you f*cking bastard! hey! hey! f*ck you!”

“what? what? what? What are you two bastards!”

It is an apartment.

The sounds of quarreling came from the open hallway of the hallway apartment.

Under the pale lamplight, two old men were arguing, holding each other by the collar.

An embarrassing spectacle, one would expect to see on the subway or in a plaza where the elderly gather, was taking place in the ruins of the era of destruction.

I couldn’t expect an answer from the old woman, so I went into the apartment.

The fight was going on on the third floor.

Between the two rooms with the door open, two old men were holding each other by the collar, while the other old men were watching the fight with their arms crossed or tongues clicking.

There were about 10 people, but judging by the sound heard from other floors on the way up, I guessed that there were quite a few people here.

But they are all old people.

At least not a single young person was present at the scene.

It seemed that no one had a gun and no one to fight with, so he boldly showed up.

When I appeared, the eyes of the elderly all turned to me.

The old people who were fighting in front of me also let go of their collars and looked at me.

A sudden silence fell on the apartment hallway.

As I was thinking about what to ask, an old man approached me.

“sorry. Because they fought loudly.”

One of the old people who fought.

I don’t know how to see, but I thought that I must have lived a very slick life when I was young.

“Are you a pioneer person?”

Neither positive nor negative.

He tried to hold my hand, but I waved my hand and clearly expressed my disapproval.

The old man awkwardly wiggled his fingers that had let go of my hand and continued.

“No, listen to me. The person from the Pioneer Corps who came with me previously assigned a room, but no, this gentleman is claiming that his room is cold and there is no heating, and he is taking someone else’s room and pretending to be the owner.”

The old man standing behind him raised his voice in anger.

“What’s wrong? Room 302 is my room. I won by lottery! see it! young man! This foal is very quick! It’s a straight lie!”

Apparently, they thought of me as one with the man who brought them here.

I didn’t wear a military uniform or anything, but I wore pants that looked like military uniforms, I was carrying a gun, and above all, I was young.

I think there was a saying that youth is a privilege, but here it was, and there was even a sense of connection with some kind of power.

“I am from another place. It’s none of my business.”

I looked around and looked around at the old people.

“What are you doing here?”

I guess I know why.

It’s a problem that you don’t have to think too deeply about.

“What is it, what is it? f*ck. I came because the country sent it. I didn’t come here because I was sent from the f*cking Korea. The country is ruined this way because the stupid citizens elect the wrong politicians.”

A foul-mouthed old man standing behind him spoke with a curse.

He stared at me and spoke as if giving an order.

“When is the next ration? My stomach will stick to my back. I came because they said they would give me rice, and they gave me a junk food bar. I can’t eat that anymore.”

Apparently, the old man seemed to have a fighting personality.

Even though they only spoke for a very short time, seeing that the angularity of their personality is revealed without fail.

Maybe if our old man Kim was here, he wouldn’t have looked like that.

Seeing the grunting old man’s face and the dead body hanging from his neck, he quickly turned around.

“Because it’s none of my business.”

“f*ck. Then what are you here for? Are you here to play?”

“yes?”

“If you’re not going to feed me, don’t be sloppy and get out of here, bastard!”

“there.”

I looked back at the old man.

He glared at him and said smartly.

“Watch your mouth.”

When our eyes met, the old man shook his head as if he had been electrocuted, avoided his gaze, and soon entered the open room as if he were running away.

The old man who was arguing with him snorted as if accusing him and ran after him.

“That’s my apartment!”

There was another squabble, as if they were fighting again, but it only added to my fatigue.

“······after.”

Not feeling the need to stay any longer, I headed for the stairs.

An old man came after me.

A cheap mountaineering vest or something was worn over a ragged shirt that had just been washed, and the vest had a shiny badge on it.

I looked at the badge quietly to see if this person was in charge.

＜Playground Sheriff＞

“?”

The old man tried to hold my hand.

Why are there so many people who like to hold hands here?

With a little irritation, I shook my hand and looked down at him.

“What is it?”

“look. A young nobleman.”

“yes.”

“I am coming. When you are young.”

When I heard that far, I thought about cutting off the old man.

Because what follows is so obvious.

“I have worked for my country all my life. I have dedicated my youth to the development of the Republic of Korea day and night, I mean, I have never been in arrears on taxes, and I have lived a quiet life without speculating as I was told. What is this? Why are you sending me to this place?”

“well.”

“How much did I put in my national pension, but I didn’t get a single penny.”

“Neither do I.”

“Go and tell the captain. It is true that we here are old people, but we are not the ones to be treated like this.”

“I will tell you when we meet.”

The old man bowed his head and thanked me.

Meanwhile, an old woman came to my side and was staring at me.

I apologized in advance.

“Sorry, but I’m busy.”

“no. Please take this.”

The old woman held out something to me.

It is food that I cannot eat, made by hardening dog food and unidentified meat.

“I will take your heart.”

“Get it at once.”

said the old woman suddenly and forcefully.

“Take it!”

After forcibly accepting it, sure enough, on the back of the dog food bar, there is a request to call someone with a contact number written on it.

Why would all the humans here be like that?

It seems a bit arrogant for a young me to judge an older person, but the old people here are strange.

How to say, they looked like people who couldn’t be loved.

When I left the apartment, feeling more tired than when dealing with the zombie horde, I noticed an old woman sitting alone.

Suddenly, an old woman who always guarded the front of the International Residence, whom I would never see again, passed by.

There must be some things I don’t need anyway. I approached her and held out a nutrition bar.

“Eat this.”

Only then did the old woman move like a living person.

Her hand in her pocket was holding a rosary.

“thank you. thank you. wooden amitabha. Namu Amitabha.”

“Why are you here alone?”

“Because the injection didn’t work.”

“yes?”

“They won’t let me in because I’m not getting the injection.”

The old woman munched cockroach-colored food in her mouth.

“What injection?”

“Zombie injection.”

“A zombie injection?”

“There’s an injection that won’t turn you into a zombie if you get hit.”

There is no such thing.

If you don’t want to die and turn into a zombie, you have to wash it. You need to wash your clothes to remove the mutation factor.

“What are you riding on? Did you come?”

“Ride the car. gave me a bus ride A driver and a man called the leader passed by and saw this apartment, and suddenly dropped it off here saying that it would be nice there.”

“okay.”

The flow is as expected.

I didn’t have time to feel anything, so I tried to go back.

“…if you get that shot, you die.”

The old woman muttered behind her.

“It’s poison. hair fall out They die by spilling water from the orifices in their bodies. Even in the place where I was before, everyone except me died…”

Whether it was because she got nourishment or because she was emotionally stimulated, the old woman swayed back and forth and chanted Buddhist chanting.

“Namu Amitabha, Namu Amitabha.”

*

It was a week later that I visited the apartment again.

The apartment, which had been heard from afar, was immersed in peaceful silence.

I found new wheel marks on the road covered in dirt and dust.

The waving flag was gone, and the old woman guarding the entrance was, of course, not there.

There was a acrid smell with a large pit in the back.

This pit seems to be the place where I created the black smoke that made me hear it again.

As I got closer, I saw a messy mixture of charred wood and white ash, and sparsely I could see charred bones in it.

a human skeleton

I felt a presence behind me.

A zombie was standing there shivering.

What you are holding in your hand is a rosary. An old woman sitting in front of her apartment and chanting Buddhist prayers.

The old woman’s forehead was shot through with dried blood.

The scene was so gruesome, and I thought that I had to lay this corpse down again with my own hands, so I inadvertently said something I didn’t mean to.

“…wasn’t it just an injection?”

The old man who was out of the way joined the other old people.

I lit a piece of paper with contact information that another old man had given me the other day and threw it over the old woman’s corpse.

Coincidentally, the flames moved to the old prayer beads that the old man was holding tight.

“Namu Amitabha.”

I prayed for the soul in the way of the deceased and climbed the stairs of the apartment.

I did this because I wanted to see if there were survivors or if I could find other clues, but it didn’t do much.

Lastly, I went up to the rooftop and saw the sun-kissed autumn grounds that were still fresh.

I see things moving.

They are people.

Each group was moving east and south, waving their flags, in a field where no one had gone.

At first glance, the number was considerable.

Defender’s words suddenly came to mind.

You can’t hide forever.

I was confident, but looking at the crowd, I felt keenly how weak my confidence was built on.

Still, it is said that nothing in the world is meaningless.

I don’t entirely agree with that statement, but an old woman who was reciting Buddhist chanting inspired me.

thud!

One fragment of the collapsed air-raid shelter was removed.

Through the debris, the underground passage to my main air-raid shelter revealed a secret darkness.

If you can’t hide forever, you should at least hide it well.

The reason why the people who drove the elderly chose the apartment as a nursing hospital with a high turnover rate was that the exterior of the apartment was not very attractive to them.

I am thinking of building a camouflage house in the place where this air raid shelter collapsed.

A beggarly corner of the house that even zombies would miss.